Stericycle Publishes 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

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Nov 21, 2023, 11:00 ET

Company highlights progress on environmental improvements, employee support, and the release of initial global ESG targets focused on forward-looking impact

BANNOCKBURN, Ill., Nov. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stericycle, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRCL), a leading provider of regulated medical waste management and secure information destruction solutions, today published its 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, which highlights the company's progress in prioritizing safety and sustainability, while advancing its strategic Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives. The report includes updates on data and initiatives from January 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, and outlines forward-looking global ESG targets.

Exemplifying its core mission, Stericycle continues to focus on the health and well-being of the communities it serves by investing time and resources in initiatives that help reduce environmental impact, implement operational enhancements, further DEI and employee support initiatives, and execute on corporate governance and ethics goals. Key actions taken during the reporting period include:

Setting a global environmental target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions for scope 1 and 2 in the United Kingdom by 2045 and globally by 2050, as well as setting a social target to improve the company's total recordable incident rate by 30% by 2035.
Driving 2.3 million fewer miles in North America during the first half of 2023 compared to the same time period in 2022, resulting in a reduction of 3,438 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions through routing efficiencies.
Launching re-engineered one-gallon SafeDrop™ Sharps Mail Back and one-gallon CsRx^® Controlled Substance Wastage containers in 2023, which use 40% less plastic compared to Stericycle's prior containers, helping to reduce CO2 emissions associated with the manufacturing process.

"Every day, our team members live out our mission of protecting health and well-being in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, and I'm very proud of our organization's commitment to set our first global ESG targets that will help guide our journey over the coming years," said Cindy J. Miller, president and chief executive officer at Stericycle. "We will continue to be strategic in our approach to corporate social responsibility by prioritizing data-based solutions, accuracy and transparency to make a real and valuable impact on the world."

Additional highlights from the 2023 CSR report include:

Environmental Impact
Stericycle treated 1.5 billion pounds of medical waste and shredded and recycled 1 billion pounds of paper globally, in addition to safely disposing of approximately 2.7 million pounds of expired medications. The company also launched an internal Green Team in 2023, whose goals include identifying opportunities to promote sustainability by optimizing operations and customer programs in the communities where Stericycle operates. Additionally, Stericycle partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation in 2022 and 2023 to plant over 120,000 trees across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company also completed shoreline restoration projects in Florida and Georgia with the National Park Foundation in 2022 and announced upcoming project locations at Yosemite National Park and Cape Cod National Seashore in 2023.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
Stericycle enhanced its culture of belonging with 65% of all U.S.-based new hires in 2022 that identified with racial or ethnic minority groups. The company also created two new Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to support young professionals and team members and their family members who have disabilities, bringing the total number of ERGs company-wide to seven. Additionally, Stericycle expanded its strategic partnerships with diverse community stakeholders, including Equality Illinois, Hire Our Heroes, Women In Trucking, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) and American Corporate Partners (ACP). In addition, the company was recognized by 50/50 Women on Boards™ as a "3+" company for having three or more women on its corporate Board of Directors. As of 2023, the average tenure of the company's Board of Directors is approximately 4.7 years, with 60% gender, ethnic or racial minority representation.

Corporate Governance and Ethics
Stericycle strengthened its corporate governance practices by launching its global ESG Steering Committee, a cross-functional group of global leaders who collaborate to ensure effective alignment and accountability for ESG strategic initiatives and work closely with the company's environmental justice (EJ) task force to better understand the communities where Stericycle operates.

"Our ESG strategy is closely tied to our promise to protect what matters, and this report highlights the progress we have made and the targets we are focused on achieving to keep this commitment," said Mike Rozembajgier, vice president of environmental, social and governance at Stericycle. "We are early in our ESG journey but believe that with a disciplined approach, we will be able to affect significant, positive change while delivering meaningful shareholder value."

To learn more about Stericycle and its sustainability efforts, please download the company's 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Safe Harbor Statement
This document may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When we use words such as "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "plan", "will", "goal", or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are prospective in nature and are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections of our management about future events and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, among others, SOP pricing volatility or pricing volatility in other commodities, decreases in the volume of regulated wastes or personal and confidential information collected from customers, the ability to complete deployment of the remaining phases of our ERP system, and disruptions resulting from deployment of our ERP system, disruptions in our supply chain, disruptions in or attacks on information technology systems, labor shortages, a recession or economic disruption in the U.S. and other countries, inflationary cost pressure in labor, supply chain, energy, and other expenses, rising interest rates or a downgrade in our credit rating resulting in an increase in interest expense, changing market conditions in the healthcare industry, competition and demand for services in the regulated waste and secure information destruction industries, foreign exchange rate volatility in the jurisdictions in which we operate, changes in governmental regulation of the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of regulated waste or the proper handling and protection of personal and confidential information, the level of government enforcement of regulations governing regulated waste collection and treatment or the proper handling and protection of personal and confidential information, reliance on third parties to provide a variety of services, our ability to realize expected financial benefits from our continuous improvement efforts, charges related to portfolio optimization or the failure of acquisitions or divestitures to achieve the desired results, failure to consummate transactions with respect to non-core businesses, the obligations to service substantial indebtedness and comply with the covenants and restrictions contained in our credit agreements and notes, political, economic, and other risks related to our foreign operations, pandemics and the resulting impact on the results of operations, long-term remote work arrangements which may adversely affect our business, supply chain disruptions, disruptions in transportation services, restrictions on the ability of our team members to travel, closures of our facilities or the facilities of our customers and suppliers, changes in the volume of paper processed by our secure information destruction business and the revenue generated from the sale of SOP, weather and environmental changes related to climate change, requirements of customers and investors for net carbon zero emissions strategies, and the introduction of regulations for greenhouse gases, which could negatively affect our costs to operate, the outcome of pending, future or settled litigation or investigations, including the investigation by the DEA discussed in our SEC reports and litigation or investigations with respect to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and foreign anti-corruption laws, failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, as well as other factors described in our filings with the SEC, including our 2022 Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. As a result, past financial performance should not be considered a reliable indicator of future performance, and investors should not use historical trends to anticipate future results or trends. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking or other statements contained herein other than in accordance with legal and regulatory obligations.

About Stericycle
Stericycle, Inc., is a U.S. based business-to-business services company and leading provider of compliance-based solutions that protects people and brands, promotes health and well-being and safeguards the environment. Stericycle serves customers in North America and Europe with solutions for regulated waste and compliance services and secure information destruction. For more information about Stericycle, please visit stericycle.com.

Media Contact:
Stericycle
Media Relations
Stericycle, Inc.
[email protected]

SOURCE Stericycle